Peter Williams: Consistent Campbell getting a raw deal

There are two matters that baffle me in the wake of Michael Campbell's sixth place in the PGA Championship: 1) Why wasn't he featured in the television coverage of the final round?

2) How come his world ranking has improved only slightly?

The TV coverage we receive here is an international feed produced by a company called TWI for the PGA of America.

TWI is part of the International Management Group (IMG) that has recently taken over Michael Campbell's affairs.

I was referred to a woman at TWI in New York called Meg Kelly who was most perturbed that I should question her or her company about the lack of exposure for Michael Campbell on the international feed. She quickly terminated the conversation and hung up on me, a reaction I thought was, frankly, a little over the top.

But did I touch a raw nerve? Were there similar questions being asked of TWI by the IMG parent? After all, if you don't show at least a few shots of the US Open champion finishing 6th in the PGA, then who do you show? Did IMG see a major opportunity for the exposure of one of its star properties disappear because of the incompetence of a TV producer ?

IMG also run the Official World Golf Rankings. They call them official because the IMG founder, the late Mark McCormack, invented them. They're supposed to reflect the best-performed players at any one particular time and special emphasis goes on results in major championships.

Michael Campbell, finishing 1st, 5th and 6th in the three majors he played, is one of only four players to have three or more top 10s in golf's important events this year. The others were Tiger Woods (1st, 2nd, 1st and 4th) Vijay Singh (5th, 6th, 5th and 10th) and Retief Goosen (3rd, 11th, 5th and 6th). Those players are ranked, respectively, 1st, 2nd and 5th in the world. Campbell is 19th.

He took a major leap after his win in the US Open from 80th to 22nd. Since then, despite top-10 finishes in the British Open and PGA and respectable top-25 performances in his two other tournaments, he has moved only three places up to number 19.

Ahead of him are players like Padraig Harrington who, although winning twice on the PGA Tour in the US this year, missed the cut in the three majors he played in. Harrington is still ranked number eight.

Argentina's Angel Cabrera made the cut in just one major this year but his six top 10s in the past year, the same as Campbell, mean he's ranked four places higher than the New Zealander.

At this level, the difference in playing privileges and income opportunities for someone in the top 10 and a player in the top 20 is minuscule. Both can play what they choose and they both make millions in endorsements.

But one might think there's a matter of pride at stake for the player about being in the top 10 and just outside it. The credibility of the rankings themselves is also questionable when they don't reflect current form.

Michael Campbell has never been a top-10 player. His highest was 12 in 2000, a year where his best placing in a major was 12th in the US Open, but he won three times.

A computer programme calculates the rankings based on results during a two-year period but sometimes, as with Campbell now, they don't tell the real story.

Some TV producers didn't show all of the real story at the PGA either.